Bohemian's Rhapsody
by Rinny-Bird
Summary: In any other universe, his crew would be composed up of different people but not here. The next Pirate King, an elder brother, a sword collector, an okama, someone thought dead, an angel, a giraffe, a ghost princess and an Amazonian. Insanity will unfold.
1. Romance Dawn, Restart!

**Bohemian Rhapsody**

**Chapter One:**

**Romance Dawn, Restart!**

"The weather's quite nice today."

"Shishishi. Its the perfect weather to start our adventure in."

Portgas D. Ace merely chuckled at his younger brother's enthusiasm, reclining in the small boat that the villagers had been nice enough to lend them—though they would probably never get it back—and staring up at the sky. His eyes were half-lidded, and a yawn escaped his mouth as he watched a seagull glide lazily through the air. The weather sure was nice and Ace felt as if he could nod off right then and there and not due to his narcolepsy, either—his infamous "ability" to just suddenly fall asleep with little warning.

Luffy had insisted that they get up at the crack of dawn when they had only been asleep for three hours at the most. Of course, the lack of sleep didn't seem to affect the strawhat-wearing boy, but Ace had already figured that. No matter how tired Luffy was, he almost never showed it, and he always had a face-splitting grin and a twinkle that spoke of all kinds of trouble in his eyes. Ace often found himself wondering how Luffy was so _chipper _all the time, but he'd always come to the conclusion that it was one of those mysteries that made up Luffy, and no one would ever figure it out.

Just as Ace had gotten comfortable and felt the first tendrils of sleep overtake him—he was positive that Luffy could take care of himself for a few hours, since he wasn't really a little kid anymore, despite how much he acted like it—he felt the boat rock as Luffy stood and a rain of sea water hit him. Groaning slightly at the feeling of seawater seeping into his clothes—he _was _a Devil Fruit user after all, making the ocean his natural enemy even if he was a pirate—and he cracked an eye open to see Luffy grinning at something behind him.

Instantly dreading what it was, Ace slowly turned his head, faintly hearing Luffy speak as he did so. Something about a sea monster and showing it what he had done these past years. Brows furrowing—the only sea monster that lived around here was the Lord of the Coast, but Luffy couldn't be so stupid as to take it on, surely—his gaze finally landed on what his brother had been grinning at and, yes, Luffy _was _stupid enough to take on the Lord of the Coast.

Twitching in slight annoyance—he had shut his eyes for a second and this had happened—he went to scold his younger brother—and possibly insult him—but he got a mouthful of sea water instead, as Luffy's Gomu Gomu no Pistol sent the giant Sea King flying. Spitting the salty water from his mouth, he whirled his head around so that he was once again facing his moron of a younger brother.

"You idiot!" he almost screamed, lunging forward and making a grab at Luffy's cheeks. Once he had a firm hold on them, he tugged them harshly, watching as they stretched and inwardly smirking at Luffy's cry of pain. Ah, the power of brotherly love: What would Ace do without it? "What would've happened if that monster destroyed our boat, huh? What would we have done then?"

"But Aceeeeeee," Luffy whined, his words slurred by his stretched cheeks, "It didn't destroy the boat and I had to get revenge for Shanks' armmmmmmm."

Ace sighed and let go of Luffy's cheeks, which immediately snapped back into place. "Just... warn me next time. I nearly had a heart attack when I saw that thing's teeth inches from my face."

"Okay!"

Shaking his head slightly, Ace settled back down in the boat and yawned again. "I'm taking a nap," he said. "Wake me up in a few hours or if you run into some type of trouble, which you undoubtedly will."

Luffy pouted and grumbled, "you're the one who runs into trouble," which earned him a kick to the shin that sent him tumbling. With the boat being so small and nowhere to land but the ocean or his brother, Luffy took the safer option and landed with a loud thud, somehow draping himself across Ace's stomach.

Ace grunted in pain at the feeling of his brother's elbow landing dangerously close to somewhere he'd rather not have elbowed. "Watch what you doing, Luffy!" he scolded, more for the fact that the rubber man could've landed in the ocean instead of on him, and especially since they had both eaten Devil Fruits and were hammers in the water. If Luffy had fallen in, Ace wouldn't have a way to rescue his brother from drowning. He barely suppressed a shudder at the thought.

"But you were the one who kicked me, Ace," Luffy pouted. Ace would've crossed his arms if he could've.

"You're right and I'm sorry," Ace apologized. "No more rough-housing in the boat, okay?"

Luffy was silent for a moment, his nose scrunched up as he thought it over. Ace rolled his eyes at this, but kept quiet knowing that Luffy would agree a whole lot faster and easier if he stayed silent than if he spoke up. After a few seconds, the captain's grin returned.

"Alright, no more rough-housing in the boat," he agreed, but, by the tone of his voice, there was an unspoken _but _there.

"But?" Ace prompted, already having an idea of where this was going.

"I get your share of meat for a month!"

"Oh, no way! A week!"

"Three weeks!"

"One and a half weeks!"

"Two and a half weeks!"

The two brothers had a stare down and Ace forced himself to look nowhere but at his brother's eyes. If he looked down any further, then there would be that unmistakable puppy dog pout that Luffy used to get whatever he wanted—it was one of the two reasons as to _why_ Luffy was captain and not himself. He felt his resolve cracking though, and when Luffy's stare slowly morphed into his puppy dog eyes, Ace gave in.

"Fine. Two and a half weeks."

Luffy cheered, jumping off of his brother and shooting his arms up in the air in a mini-celebration type of victory dance. Ace rolled his eyes at this, but he wasn't too annoyed. Living with Luffy for as long as he has, one would quickly get used to the fact that most, if not all, of the meat you had would get consumed by the bottomless pit that he now had to call Captain.

He yawned again and this time let himself fall asleep, figuring that Luffy could take care of things for a few hours. If only he knew how wrong he was, then maybe he would've never let Luffy be the only one functioning on a small boat in the middle of the ocean where they would both lose all mobility if they fell in. However, he was too tired to be worried about his admittedly stupid idea of letting Luffy handle things, and he fell into a dreamless sleep without a single problem.

oOo

The first thing Ace noticed when he awoke was that his stomach was rumbling angrily in a demand to be fed, while the second was that, despite going steadily forward, the boat was rocking back and forth like it was being tugged towards something. He blinked the sleep from his eyes and pushed himself up so that he could look at Luffy while speaking to him.

"Did anything happen while I was asleep?" he asked, causing Luffy's gaze to train on him.

"Nope!"

"Anything dangerous in front of us?"

"Nope!"

"That's good," Ace mumbled to himself before sitting up fully and stretching the kinks out of his back from his sleeping position He yawned again, vaguely noticing that Luffy was staring at something behind his older brother again—Ace wondered if he should've claimed the other end of the boat. Curious, and with the slightest amount of dread, he turned and stared at what had Luffy so quiet.

A pause as Ace turned to face a still-grinning Luffy.

"What the hell Luffy! You said that there was nothing dangerous in front of us!"

"But, there wasn't."

"There's a _whirlpool _right there! A whirlpool! And, in case you've forgotten, _neither of us can swim_!"

"Shishishi. Don't worry, Ace, I have a plan," Luffy laughed, not at all worried about their impending doom.

Ace twitched, holding back the urge to whap his baby brother on the head because he knew it wouldn't do anything to the rubber man.

"And, pray tell, what is this plan of yours?" he asked through gritted teeth.

"We'll hide in the barrel!"

"There's no room in the barrel! Its full of food!"

"Shishishi. I ate it all while you were sleeping."

"You..." Ace began but trailed off when he noticed that he had nothing to say to that. Sure, he knew that Luffy was a glutton, but to eat all of the food they had, the _only _food they had, in a matter of hours? He couldn't even wrap his mind around the idea, though he guessed he should be somewhat glad for his gluttonous little brother, considering Luffy had given the two of them a way to escape—a very, very, very dubious and dangerous way, but a way none-the-less—death at the hands of a whirlpool...

"_Shit!_" Ace cursed, having completely forgotten about the whirlpool in his attempt to wrap his mind around the mystery that was Monkey D. Luffy. He spun around, jaw dropping when he noticed how close they were to their impending doom. It really shouldn't have been possible to get that close in such a little amount of time unless he had been lost in thought longer than he first, well, thought. Groaning, he hoped that this plan worked—it probably would: Luffy had the stupidest luck sometimes. He turned, grabbed his brother by that back of his shirt, since Luffy had wandered over to his brother in the time Ace had been thinking, slightly worried when the older man didn't even twitch at his comment, and the elder stuffed his brother in the barrel.

He looked down into the cramped space and sighed. "There is no way in hell this is going to work," he grumbled before squeezing himself into the tiny space, for once jealous that Luffy was made of rubber. At least he could be smashed against the side of the barrel and not feeling anything.

Luffy merely laughed at his statement.

Ace pulled the lid over the top of the barrel and sighed again as he wondered what he had gotten himself into. He started to think that perhaps he should've left three years ago to be the captain of his own crew, but one look at the still-laughing Luffy stopped that thought in its tracks. He settled down in the barrel as best as he could, Luffy maneuvering himself so that he was—somehow—sitting on his brother's lap.

"This is going to be a long ride."

Luffy just laughed once again.

oOo

Coby grunted, rolling a suspiciously heavy barrel onto the shore before stopping to wipe his forehead as he gave the simple, wooden barrel a suspicious look. He had never heard of a barrel this heavy. Maybe it had a person in it? He chuckled and shook his head. Yeah, right. Why would a person be in a barrel? It was probably full of sake or something like that. Shrugging, he continued to roll the barrel up the shore until he came to a plain, wooden shack where three of Alvida's crew were waiting.

"H-hey!" he called out, cursing himself inwardly for his stutter. How was he going to become a strong marine if he couldn't even talk to a weak pirate without stuttering? But when all three pairs of eyes turned towards him, he gulped and shoved that thought to the back of his mind. He really didn't want to die. "I-I think that there's sake in this barrel. It got washed up on shore..."

"What? You're saying that barrel of sake got washed up on shore?" the one with the short dark hair asked, causing Coby to inwardly roll his eyes. He had _just _said that.

_Really. Guys like these are definitely what gave pirates the name uncivilized and illiterate_, Coby thought before answering the pirates question.

"Yes. There seems to be something inside it. What should we do with it?" He tacked on that last part without really meaning too. He didn't want to be the one in charge of the mysterious barrel when Alvida found out about it, so he was more than happy when one of the other two suggested that they drink it together. He took a small step back, hoping to escape unnoticed, but he stopped when the last of the three pirates turned his attention on him.

"You know what to do, right Coby?" he asked, his voice taking on a threatening quality.

Coby nodded vigorously. "Of... of course! I haven't seen anythi-"

But before Coby got to finish answering, the lid to the barrel popped off and a pair of arms followed by a head and torso shot out of the barrel at an alarming speed.

"That was a nice nap!" the owner of said arms, head, and torso yelled, stretching his arms above his head with a huge grin on his face. "Looks like we were saved! And I thought we were going to die!"

Coby blinked, his mouth open and eyes wide in surprise. So he was right! There had been a person in the barrel, but why was he saying we? Was there someone else in there too? But that was more preposterous than the thought of one person in the miniscule barrel.

But Coby never got the answer to that question as the sound of wood breaking snapped him from his thoughts, and he stared wide-eyed as Alvida's metal mace came flying through the shack. He instantly dropped to his knees and covered his head with his arms in an attempt to protect it from the shards of glass and wood that were falling through the air. He hoped that Alvida wouldn't notice him and that the strange boy in the barrel was okay. He didn't want to be at fault if the boy died or anything, since he was the one who brought the barrel onto shore in the first place. He peeked through his arms to see that Alvida was distracted yelling at the three pirates and that the boy in the barrel was gone. Eyes widening, he shot up and rushed into the forest only to trip over something in the process.

"What was that?" he asked, pushing himself off the ground and turning to see what he had tripped over. To say that he was shocked when he saw he had tripped over a body would be an understatement, as he promptly shrieked and fell over backwards. Holding a hand to his chest, he tried to calm his beating heart while moving forward so that he could get a closer look at who he had tripped over.

_Please don't be dead, please don't be dead, please don't be dead, _he chanted over and over in his head as he moved closer until he was right next to the man. He took note of his black hair and freckled face before he caught a glimpse of the man's rising and falling chest and he couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped him.

So the man wasn't dead, but what was he doing sleeping in the middle of the forest? Especially on an island claimed by Iron Mace Alvida? Just as he reached a hand out to try and shake the man awake a familiar voice spoke up behind him. "That's not gonna do anything. When Ace falls asleep, nothing'll wake him up."

He spun around, eyes widening when he saw the same boy from before, lips still turned up in a grin and a twinkle in his eye. Coby's eyes strayed to a small cut on the boy's cheek. "Are you alright?" he asked.

The boy blinked before laughing. "I'm fine!" he said once he was finished.

"Um, if you don't mind me asking, who are you?"

"I'm Luffy! Where are we?"

Coby blinked. _What a strange name,_ he thought, but he answered almost instantly. "This is the territory of the pirate Iron Mace Alvida, and I'm the caretaker of her ship. My name's Coby."

"I see, but that's not important. Do you have a small boat, though? Mine was caught in a whirlpool."

Coby's eyes widened and he exclaimed, "Wh-whirlpool? You were caught in a _whirlpool_?"

"Yeah. It sure was scary, though. So, do you have a small boat?"

_A normal person would be dead if their boat was caught in a whirlpool, _Coby thought. _Just who is this guy?_

"I do have small boat, but..." Coby trailed off, thinking of the boat he had been building for two years that looked like it was going to sink the second he placed it in the water.

"Really? Then lets go!" Luffy exclaimed, practically jumping up and down in joy.

Coby's eyes wandered to the still sleeping man. _I think Luffy-san called him Ace. I wonder how they know each other? And should we really just leave him here?_

Luffy followed Coby's gaze, his grin turning wider when he saw what the boy was looking at. "Ah, Ace'll be fine if we just leave him here. I've done it a whole bunch of times before and he's managed to get back. So let's go get that boat!"

"if you say so," Coby sighed, still worried, but he led Luffy towards his boat's hiding spot anyway.

oOo

Ace shot up, expecting to still be inside the damned barrel and shocked when he noticed that he was in a lush forest instead. He blinked, looking around to see if he could spot Luffy anywhere, and when he didn't see the familiar straw hat, he sighed and laid back down, arms spread wide. He knew that Luffy was fine since he couldn't hear the boy, which ultimately meant that he wasn't in any sort of trouble. And Ace was pretty comfortable laying here and stretching his limbs. That barrel had been cramped with him and Luffy inside, and he was thankful that one of his fits had decided to show up again so he could just sleep off the ride and ignore Luffy's babbling and whining about how he was hungry.

The sound of fighting reached Ace's ears and he sighed. The little peace he had was gone and now he had better get up and go find Luffy before the pirate captain caused anymore trouble then he already had. Standing, the elder pirate brushed the dirt from his shorts before shoving his hands in his pockets and walking forward, whistling a merry tune as he did so. By the time he reached the edge of the forest, he could see Luffy laughing as a younger boy stared up at him with something akin to admiration in his eyes, tears streaming down his face. Ace also noticed that the other men on this island seemed terrified of Luffy and, there was a woman passed out on the ground.

He blinked before asking, "Do I really want to know what happened here?"

Luffy whirled around. "Ace! Guess what? I got us a new boat!"

"Is that so?" Ace chuckled, not at all doubting Luffy.

"Yeah! And Coby here says that he wants to be a marine, so we're taking him to the next island so he can start his training!" Luffy grinned, slapping Coby on the back and causing the pink-haired boy to stumble forward.

Ace was slightly surprised by this, but he didn't question it. Instead, he turned and introduced himself to the boy. "The name's Portgas D. Ace, and I apologize if my idiotic little brother has caused you any trouble."

"A-ah! No, you've got it all wrong! Luffy-san actually saved me!" Coby exclaimed, waving his hands in the air in front of his chest as if trying to knock the apology away. "If it wasn't for him, I'd still be working under Alvida."

Ace raised a brow at this, turning to look at the still-grinning Luffy. "You actually managed to do something right for once, Luffy?" he asked, not particularly believing this and waiting for something to happen that would prove that Luffy had done something stupid again. His wait was in vain, however, as Luffy had finally done something right.

Before Luffy could answer, though, a shaking pirate appeared, his eyes trained fearfully on anywhere but Luffy. Ace inwardly rolled his eyes at this. There was nothing scary about his baby brother—except, maybe, his monstrous apatite—and it was extremely amusing to see someone afraid of him.

"Th-the boat is ready," the pirated said before turning and fleeing from the vicinity. Clueless as always, Luffy simply grinned before turning and grabbing both Coby and Ace in the process.

"Lets go then!" the rubber man exclaimed, still grinning from ear to ear and dragging his two companions behind him, oblivious to the calls of "let go" and "slow down". After he dropped Coby off at the nearest island, he would start his look for his nakama and then they would set sail to the Grand Line where the legendary treasure of One Piece was waiting. Why should he slow down now?

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah. I decided to go through with writing out a story based on the drabbles written for Aoi24's AU challenge because I just came to absolutely love that universe I created and it, like, ate at my soul and mind. Which means that Chasing Freedom is going to be on the back-burner for a while as I literally cannot get this AU out of my mind. I am such a bad author sometimes, seriously. Oh well, what's done is done. I hope that I got everyone in character even if there were only three and I hope that the dialogue was amusing. I'm definitely not going to copy the manga word for word as there will be different situations and experiences with a completely new crew; I'll just be using it as a reference. Besides, giving a canon crew member's dialogue to someone else would be strange and I want this to be as flowing as I can make it. And a huge thanks to my beta Lady Spritzy whose put up with my horribly short attention span on the stories I'd like her to beta. and I do not own One Piece. i'm just a poor author who likes messing with its characters.<strong>

**Till next time,**

**Birdie.**


	2. Cover Your Eyes

**Bohemian's Rhapsody**

**Chapter Two:**

**Cover Your Eyes**

A few days had passed since the two pirates had received their new boat from the Alvida Pirates, and in those few days quite a lot had happened. They had dropped Coby off at Shells Town merely hours after the people had been freed from the tyranny of Axe-hand Morgan by one Roronoa Zoro, who had disappeared right before the three had shown up. Luffy was disappointed by this, since he had wanted the pirate hunter to be in his crew, but he forgot all about his disappointment once a plate of steaming hot food was placed in front of him. Ace, honoring the deal between the two of them, reluctantly gave his grinning brother his meat. After a slightly tearful farewell from Coby, the two brothers were once again on their way.

Of course, the next day found the brothers on an island overrun by Buggy the Clown, and Ace was reminded of Luffy's fury at his precious hat being damaged. The two of them kicked that entire crew to the curb, however, just before being chased off the island by its furious villagers who mistakenly believed that the brothers had knocked out their mayor, which they had done purely out of necessity.

Unsurprisingly, on the third day into their travels, they had defeated the notorious Captain Kuro and stopped him from murdering an innocent girl just for her fortune. This time they were thanked, though, when the woman had given them a small caravel ship by the name of Going Merry. Luffy was, obviously, completely enamored with the ship and promptly claimed the figurehead as his favorite seat despite the danger, but Ace hadn't expected anything else from him.

Which lead to where they were now, Luffy sitting on the sheep-based figurehead and Ace charting out the route that they had taken and writing fiercely in the logbook, every once in awhile glancing up to make sure that the ship was staying on course and that Luffy was where he was supposed to be. The silence stretched for about five more minutes before it was broken by an immensely bored Luffy.

"Accceeeee," he whined, turning so that he could see his brother. "I'm boreeeeeeeed."

"I'm busy right now Luffy," Ace said not looking up from what he was doing. "Go find something to amuse yourself with. I'm sure that there's something on this ship."

"But I already checked and there's nothing."

"Well, that's too bad then. You'll just have to sit there until I'm done."

Luffy pouted but kept quiet, turning so that he could watch the sea again. It was at times like these that he wished that he had another crewmember to mess around with. Yes, he loved his brother, but Ace could be so boring at times, especially when he was doing his navigation stuff and writing in the logbook. Luffy knew how important it was but that didn't change the fact that it was boring when he had to be quiet.

He let out an annoyed whine and laid limply on the figurehead, staring sullenly out in front of him. His boredom was quickly replaced by excitement, though, when he noticed the slowly growing blob in front of the ship. "Its an island!" he cheered, whipping around to look at his brother. "There's an island coming up, Ace!"

Ace blinked and looked at the map, before looking up and noting that there was an island coming up. He hummed thoughtfully for a moment, before packing up his things and storing them in the gallery so that they wouldn't be ruined by his brother.

"What's the island called, Ace?" Luffy asked, leaning back to stare at his brother.

"Konomi Islands," Ace answered. "Now, off the figurehead. We don't know how they'll react to pirates so we have to be on our guard."

Luffy wrinkled his nose but obeyed, his excitement level rising. They had been traveling for days without any island in sight, which meant no adventures or new nakama, and he was getting restless to go explore and maybe find some crewmembers along the way. And he was getting kinda hungry too, as he had finished off the last of their food that morning, which had earned him a punch to the top of his head from a furious Ace.

"Are we going to restock on that island too?" Luffy asked.

"Of course."

"Then I'll go look for some crewmembers and get myself some food while you go get the supplies!"

Seeing nothing wrong with that plan, Ace agreed. He was going to do something like that to begin with, anyway, so it wasn't too worrying that Luffy wanted to explore. He actually expected something like that to happen.

As the island got closer, Ace could see Luffy's excitement rising but before he could tell the rubberman to stay put, Luffy was already gone, having used his powers to catapult himself onto the island and ultimately leaving his brother behind.

"Wait! Luffy!" Ace yelled, leaning dangerously over the edge of the ship. "Get back here! You can't just go catapulting yourself onto an island, you idiot!" But Luffy was already out of sight and out of earshot of his brother's yelling, causing Ace to let out a frustrated groan and turn back to the ship, only to see that there were two strange people-like fish-things walking towards him.

"This is just perfect," Ace sighed, getting into his fighting stance and causing the fishmen (he faintly remembered reading about them somewhere) to give him mocking looks. And just because fate was deciding to be a bitch that day, he felt darkness creeping up on him and before he could even let out a curse, he was asleep, landing heavily on the deck of the Going Merry.

oOo

"Meat, meat, meat, meat," Luffy chanted as he strolled through the small town, completely unaware of the looks he was getting from the villagers. His mind was only on one thing at the moment and that was getting some food in his growling stomach. But he couldn't seem to find any open bars or cafes, which only caused his hunger and annoyance to grow.

"Meeeaaaattttt," he groaned, slumping against a table and starring sadly ahead, his lips turned down in a pout. He looked so absolutely miserable that he gathered the attention of the mayor and sheriff of the little town he was in.

"Boy, what are you doing here?"

Luffy looked up to see a man leaning over him, and his attention was quickly caught by the pinwheel sticking out of the old man's hat. Hunger forgotten for a moment, he straightened up and exclaimed, "That's so cool! Ne, Ossan, why is there a pinwheel in your hat?"

The man blinked but never got to answer as Luffy had already fired off another question, quickly remembering his hunger. "Pinwheel-ossan, do you know where I can get some meat? I'm hungry."

"This island isn't welcoming to strangers," the man answered. "You should leave and try a different one."

"But, I'm hungry," Luffy whined, "and Ace said that this was the closest place to get supplies before Loguetown... Ah! I left Ace behind! He's gonna be so angry with me..."

Luffy pouted as his stomach growled again but before he could speak, a shaking voice filled the air.

"Arlong's coming!"

Luffy blinked at the sudden feeling of despair that appeared. Usually, he wasn't one for noticing the atmosphere, but not even he could ignore it this time. He sat up and glanced around the small village, his eyes ultimately landing on the Pinwheel-ossan, who looked like he could barely conceal his anger.

"Ne, Pinwheel-ossan, who's Arlong?"

"Someone you shouldn't get involved with."

Luffy tilted his head to one side, watching as the villagers all scrambled into their homes, before he caught sight of the hulking figure walking towards them. His eyes widened at the sight of them and his jaw dropped in shock. He had never seen anyone so cool-looking before! They looked like they were fish, but they were walking and even talking like humans! "So cool," he whispered, earning a heated glare from Pinwheel-ossan.

"There is nothing cool about them at all," he hissed, but before he could say anything else, Arlong and the others were upon them.

"Are you the one who was found with weapons in his possession three days ago?" the person who Luffy assumed Arlong was asked, towering over Pinwheel-ossan. Before the man could even speak, Luffy had spoken up, oblivious to the warning looks he was getting from the villagers.

"Fish-ossan, do you know where I can get some meat?"

A silence blanketed the village so thick that it could be cut with a sword as everyone turned their attention to look at the grinning Luffy.

"Well, do ya?" he asked again, after the silence had stretched for too long, his grin quickly morphing into a frown when only more silence answered his question. He was hungry, goddammit! And no one would tell him where to find anything to eat!

"Who is this boy?" Arlong asked, spitting out the word boy like it was poison.

"I'm Monkey D. Luffy, the man whose going to be the next Pirate King!" Luffy answered, his grin returning. If all they wanted to know was who he was before giving him any meat than that was fine. "And you must be Arlong! So, do you know where any meat is?"

There was a moment of silence before all the fishmen burst out laughing, causing Luffy to frown in confusion. What was so funny about wanting to know where there was meat? Seriously, these guys must be total idiots to be laughing at something like that.

"You? The next _Pirate King_?" Arlong asked between his laughter. "That's the funniest thing I've heard in years! How could a lowly human like you be the next Pirate King?"

Luffy's frown deepened. "Oi! Don't laugh at me! I am going to be the Pirate King and if you don't like it then too bad, you stinkin fish!"

The laughter instantly stopped.

"What did you just say?" Arlong growled, now towering over Luffy with unmistakable fury swimming in his eyes.

"I said that I'm going to be the next Pirate King."

Did this guy have a hearing problem or something? Luffy had spoken in his usual this-is-going-to-come-true voice, which was actually pretty loud, but apparently Arlong hadn't heard him the second time either as he asked, "What did you call me, you stupid human?"

"I called you a stinkin fish," Luffy answered, in a nonchalant voice as he stared up at Arlong.

"You stupid boy," Pinwheel-ossan whispered, shaking his head but he had gone unheard as Arlong had punched Luffy, sending the boy flying, out of anger and disbelief that someone had the nerve to call him a stinking fish.

"That's a warning to all of you," Arlong said, turning to glare at the watching villagers. "No one goes up against me and expects to live."

Apparently satisfied with the way the villagers looked at him with fear, he turned and ordered the rest of his men to return to Arlong Park, forgetting completely what he had gone to Cocoyashi Village for in the first place.

There was silence as he left but, once Arlong was out of earshot, Pinwheel-ossan turned and ordered, "Someone find that boy and see if he's still living. If he is, treat his wounds before sending him away."

"But, Genzo-" someone began until they were interrupted by a furious voice.

"What the hell was that for?"

Everyone turned to stare disbelievingly at Luffy as he pulled himself out of a heap of wood and glass, perfectly fine after having been punched by Arlong and sent flying into a building.

'Boy, you..." Genzo began, shocked that someone had survived that blow and appeared completely unharmed by it save for a few cuts here and there.

Luffy blinked and looked at him, his face splitting into a wide grin as he pulled his cheek, causing it to stretch more than a normal human's face should. "Its alright. I'm a rubber man so that didn't hurt a bit!"

"A rubber man?"

"Yup! I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi so now I'm a rubber man!"

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry that this is so late, I got sick, like, right before I was finished typing this up and am still a little sick now, actually. I know its shorter than the last chapter and that its probably horribly written, but its the best I can do right now, especially since the Arlong Arc was my least favorite, so writing it, even with different characters and different actions, is a pain for me. And I don't feel particularly confident with how I wrote Arlong but whatever.<strong>

**Ans, as always, a huge thanks to my beta who owns one third of my soul (the other two thirds belong to One Piece and A:tLA if anyone was wondering, which you probably weren't).**

**See ya next week.**

**Birdie.**


	3. author's note

so, i have moved this story to another account, which is dedicated to just bohemian's rhapsody. the account is called Bohemian'sCapricorn, and i will link to it in my profile so if you're still interested in this story than follow it, yes~?

- rinny (i go by capri on that account)


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